


Feelings Are Complicated

by generalatomicsgalleria (charmingotter)



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Light Swearing, The Brotherhood of Steel, Unresolved Issues, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 23:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11816778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmingotter/pseuds/generalatomicsgalleria
Summary: Elvira does a little flirting and MacCready gets jealous.“Mac, would you hand me that little socket wrench?” She should have been using one before, probably, but she hadn't felt like switching tools at the time. Elvira wiped the sweat from her hands on her pants and held her hand back to him.“Uhh…” MacCready hesitated. “And what’s a socket wrench look like exactly?” Elvira looked back to see him staring over her array of tools laid out on the floor beside him in pitiful confusion. His job was usually to put band-aids on her, this was really his area of expertise she knew.“This one, you grunt,” finally said one of the other mechanics, getting up from his workbench and snatching the socket wrench up. “There ya go, sweetheart,” he told Elvira sweetly, a sly smile playing on his lips. He laid the tool in her still outstretched hand, “If there’s anything else I can help with, just let me know, alright?” He winked.





	Feelings Are Complicated

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheWriterOfFira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWriterOfFira/gifts).



The good people of Sanctuary Hills were going to own her one for this, Elvira thought biting her lip to keep from swearing as her hand slipped and hit something yet again. Silently, she swore up one side and down the other, cursing the stupid useless generator she was having to fix. She looked at her hand, no blood this time. Still, it hurt like hell. Sturges, especially, owed her one for this, Elvira shook her head. This was supposed to be his job now. 

She threw down the wrench, annoyed with it entirely now. “Mac, would you hand me that little socket wrench?” She should have been using one before, probably, but she hadn't felt like switching tools at the time. Elvira wiped the sweat from her hands on her pants and held her hand back to him. 

“Uhh…” MacCready hesitated. “And what’s a socket wrench look like exactly?” Elvira looked back to see him staring over her array of tools laid out on the floor beside him in pitiful confusion. His job was usually to put band-aids on her, this was really his area of expertise she knew. 

“This one, you grunt,” finally said one of the other mechanics, getting up from his workbench and snatching the socket wrench up. “There ya go, sweetheart,” he told Elvira sweetly, a sly smile playing on his lips. He laid the tool in her still outstretched hand, “If there’s anything else I can help with, just let me know, alright?” He winked. 

Elvira laughed good-naturedly, ignoring MacCready's agitated demeanor. “I’ll be sure to come find you, should the need arise…” Elvira paused. “Actually,” she said, “I could use some help.” She eyed the stool she had set her manuals on, “If you move those books, you’re welcome to come sit down and help actually.” She pointed to the generator with her socket wrench. “Been having some trouble figuring out what's wrong with this old guy.”

The man eyed the generator curiously, before returning his gaze back to Elvira. “Ah, hell, why not,” he said with a shrug. “Not like what I’m working on is gettin’ fixed today anyway.” He moved her manuals away, tossing them unceremoniously onto his own work messy bench. 

“That’s the spirit,” Elvira encouraged. “Now, get over here and help me take these bolts off.”

“Demanding,” he noted. “I like it,” he winked again. 

They continued like that until, eventually, they had fixed the old thing. By then Elvira had learned a fair amount about the man; his name was Peter, he joined the Brotherhood of Steel when he was a teenager, he’s had a special hatred for reasons he would only allude to, and he was very insistent that they really did need to go on a date next Friday.

“You can’t be that busy,” Peter insisted, a lopsided grin plastered on his face as they playfully went back and forth on this.

“I can’t,” Elvira told him with a laugh. “I'm busy. Like...all the time. I don't have time for dates.” She grabbed the manuals off his bench and shoved them back into her bag. Sturges is gonna need em, she thought. 

He spread his arms wide. “Not even dates with me?” 

Elvira shook her head laughing, as she stooped down to beginning gathering the rest of her things. “Nope. Not even dates with you.” She rolled up her tools and shoved them in with her manuals and zipped everything up. “Too busy,” she repeated.

“Tonight then? You're not busy right now,” Peter grinned, feeling as though he had won.

“She said no, blunderbuss,” MacCready burst out. It was the first time he had spoken for the first time in a good while. They both stared at him, a mixture of confusion and shock. “Just leave her alone,” he grumbled, snatching up Elvira’s bag and walking off without another word. 

“What's up with him?” Peter asked, not sounding terribly concerned over the other man's outburst.

Elvira watched him go, frowning. She actually wasn't sure. He had been acting more and more agitated around her lately. Had she done something wrong? She couldn't help but begin to wonder. “I gotta go check on him,” she finally told Peter after a long moment. “Thanks again for the help.” 

Peter nodded. “No problem,” he smiled. “Always glad to help a pretty lady.”

Blushing, Elvira just waved him away. People didn't compliment her often for a reason, she knew, but she still appreciated the ones she got. “Bye, Peter.” She gave him a small smile before heading out the same way McCready had gone.

It took a lot of searching but eventually, Elvira found him sitting in the abandoned part of the airport no one ever went in. She was surprised the elevator even worked to get up there. Nonetheless, it had creaked and groaned and slowly brought her up to MacCready.

He had kicked his feet up on a console that she was sure used to control some sort of very important airplane things and pulled his hat over his eyes. Her bag was lying on the floor next to the door. Elvira wondered why he bothered to grab it actually. Shaking her head, she stepped onward, towards the man in question. “Quite a view from here,” she said quietly.

He hummed, not moving. Elvira nodded, pulling a nearby crate closer to his chair to sit down. “I never went on a plane before the bombs fell,” she admitted casually. “I was always scared something might happen. Wish I had now.” She shrugged. “I imagine planes then were much different than the vertibirds,” she laughed half heartedly. She frowned when MacCready didn't react. “Are you mad at me?” Elvira asked quietly. She looked back at her bag by the door. Maybe he had really meant it when he said he didn't want to carry her crap. Had she overstepped?

MacCready sighed, finally pushing his hat back up and looking at her. “No.” He did not say it unkindly, but there was none of his usual affection either.

Elvira fidgeted with the frayed threads on her jacket. “You sure? You don't exactly seem all that happy with me, Mac. If I did something wrong, just tell me.”

“No, no,” he shook his head. “That guy was-”

“Peter?” Elvira interrupted.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Peter. He was just getting on my nerves. You didn't do anything wrong, El.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Really,” MacCready said. “We’re okay.”

Elvira frowned, still feeling sort of dejected. There was something he wasn't telling her, she could feel it. Even so, she didn't push it. She just nodded, putting her own hand over his. “Alright, Mac. I just wanted to make sure…” She stood up then, letting his hand fall away. “Alright, now, come help me get that stupid generator into a vertibird, we have to take it back to Sanctuary.”

MacCready groaned loudly. “Do I have to?” Despite his complaining, he stood up though, moving towards the elevator with her.

“Yep,” she told him, grabbing her bag before he could. Just in case, she thought, pulling the strap up higher on her shoulder. “And you've got to help me get it out when we get to Sanctuary.” 

He pressed the button for the elevator for them, the wobbly thing drawing it's slow way up to them. “Maybe you should get Peter to help you,” he muttered and stepped into the elevator. “God knows you flirted enough to get him to do it.”

Elvira cocked her head to the side, staring at him as he waited for her to get in the elevator with him, holding a hand on the doors. “What did you say?” She narrowed her eyes at him, stepping closer, but not in with him.

“Nothing,” he grumbled.

“No, no,” Elvira insisted. “You said something.”

“I just said maybe you should get him to help you with the generator.” He gestured to the space beside him. “Would you get in here already.”

“No! The other part! The part about me!” Her voice had risen unexpectedly, she pressed her lips together tightly before something unsavory came out. 

MacCready looked exasperated. “I just said you had flirted with him enough!”

“So!? So what if I flirted with him, MacCready!?” She had begun screaming at him now and she knew she shouldn't have, but she kept going. “Is that the issue? He liked me? Excuse me for appreciating the attention!”

“He was an asshole,” he screamed right back, still holding the elevator door for her.

“So!” She asked again. “It's none of your business who I flirt with anyway, MacCready!” 

“It-” He began, but closed his mouth immediately. He shook his head. “Fine, you're right. It is none of my business.” He threw his hands up in defeat and in doing so finally let the elevator door close. Elvira made no attempt to get on before it shut.

Slinging her bag back down to floor Elvira went and sat down exactly where MacCready had sat before, stewing on the fact that he apparently thought he had the right to tell her who she could and could not flirt with. 

It wasn't even that big a deal, she thought angrily. At this point, she was ready to go back down there right now and not only accept Peter’s date invitation but kiss him too just for good measure. If nothing but to make a point. 

The sky had darkened significantly when the elevator climbed back up the little tower, a small ding signifying its arrival. Elvira didn't look back. 

“I'm sorry,” MacCready said. “I, uh, shouldn't have…ya know...done any of that.”

“No,” Elvira agreed. “You shouldn't have.” She stared at the sky stubbornly, refusing to look at him.

“I, uh...I guess I just thought you deserved better than that bozo mechanic.” Elvira said nothing. Not even bothering to get offended by the mechanic part at this point. Her anger was tapped out with everything else. “Will you forgive me, El?” 

Elvira shook her head. “Whatever, Mac. I'm going to bed. We’ll take the generator over tomorrow.” She didn't look even look at him as she walked past to the elevator. 

She slept only barely that night, her dreams restless and unsettling though she didn't remember them the next morning. When she got back down to the airport, MacCready was waiting for her next to the generator, ready to go. He had even grabbed her bag from where she ended up leaving it in the tower yesterday evening. 

“The vertibird is over there. Let's do this,” Elvira told him, her voice colder than usual, and went to pick up one end of the generator. He did the same and they carefully and swiftly made their way over. The pilot insisted on strapping the thing down herself, so Elvira went back to get her bag of tools and books. “Wait here,” she told MacCready when he tried to follow her. 

Just as she had grabbed the strap Peter came bounding up to her. “Oh, are you leaving?” He looked from the vertibird to her bag. “Thought you'd be around a while.”

She shook her head. “Don't worry, Peter, I will be. Just gotta take some stuff to this settlement by Concord. I won't be gone long.”

“Ah, I see,” he said nodding. “Oh, your boyfriend looks pissed.” Peter made a face. “Sorry about yesterday, by the way. Didn't mean to make him jealous or anything.” He shrugged. “You do seem in need of a good date though,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her, his serious tone gone.

“He's….he's not my boyfriend,” Elvira told him, confused. “What do you...you think he was jealous?” 

Peter shrugged. “I mean...that's what it looked like to me? After the fact at least,” he laughed. “A well, anyways, you have a safe flight.” He smiled. “I gotta head on up. Ingram wanted me.” He gave her a small two finger salute before continuing on his way.

Carrying her things on back over to the bird, everyone was ready to go. She thought about what Peter had said the entire way there. Maybe he was right? Maybe it was jealous? But what did that mean then? She shook her head, she didn't even want to think about what all that meant. She did, however, soften to MacCready, just a little, once they got back to Sanctuary.

“I'll get Struges to help us with this,” she told him, slapping him on the shoulder as she went passed him. She'd think about what everything meant later when Sanctuary had power again. Or maybe when she found Shaun again. Just not right now.


End file.
